


The Valentine’s Day Gala

by Skyler10



Series: Verse as in Music [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Mentions of Taylor Swift, Songfic, Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-13
Updated: 2015-02-13
Packaged: 2018-03-12 04:21:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3343487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyler10/pseuds/Skyler10
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was by association with Torchwood that Rose+Tentoo were in attendance at the same Valentine’s Day Gala as parallel!Martha and her man. It was by coincidence that they sat down at the same table...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Game

**Author's Note:**

> With this one, I wanted to explain how Rose and Tentoo are so close to Martha and her husband in my later fics. :) And any excuse for fluff, basically.

It was by association with Torchwood that the two couples were in attendance at the same Valentine’s Day Gala. It was by coincidence that they sat down at the same table.

After the first dance, Rose Tyler and the Doctor returned to their coats, draped across the backs of chairs at a previously empty table, now occupied by acquaintances of theirs – Reggie and Martha Moore. The Doctor held Rose’s hand a little tighter now that he was seated directly across from the face of one of his lost companions. Except, of course, this Martha had only heard vague stories about Daleks and Cybermen and the TARDIS from her work in the Torchwood medical unit. The Doctor set a firm guard in his mind: this was not the friend he had saved the world with over and over again. This was a different person entirely. He barely registered greeting the other couple and agreeing to play a game involving conversation cards with questions and guessing your partner’s answers and points. His Time Lord mind was far too busy locking away his Martha-related emotions and memory, just for now. Or forever. However long this tedious dinner party of Jackie’s lasted.

“ _I_ said we should go star-gazing on the roof, nice romantic evening alone, but noooo,” the Doctor grumbled.

“Well, you are marrying into the Tyler family and the Tyler family runs Torchwood and that includes attending silly office parties,” Rose lectured him before sighing and softening her tone. “Maybe after, yeah?”

“So how did you two meet?” Martha asked her co-workers across the table, reading off a heart-shaped card. 

“Really?” The Doctor murmured to his fiancée at his side. “Rose, these are the most unimaginative conversation cards I’ve ever encountered.”

“I was in charge of the guest list, I’ll have you know,” she retorted. “I had nothing to do with the entertainment. That was all Mum.”

Martha shifted uncomfortably in her seat next to Reggie, her husband – it still set a thrill through her to call him that six months after the wedding – and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

Rose sent the Doctor a silent but stern “play nice,” but addressed Martha and Reggie.

“Excuse my fiancé’s rude behavior. Shall we try this again? Doctor, it’s your turn. Just answer the way you think I would have answered and we’ll get a point,” Rose sighed. “Very sorry Martha, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to repeat the question.”

“It’s alright,” Martha exhaled with a small laugh. “These couples’ games are difficult enough for us normal couples.”

“Oi, now,” Reggie piped up. “I wouldn’t exactly put us in the boring, normal category!” He winked down at his bride.

“Well, how about…” Martha thought for a moment. “Those of us who haven’t hopped across dimensions to find each other, much less traveled all of time and space.”

“Better.” Reggie shot her his trademark infectious smile.

The Doctor shrugged sheepishly and lightened up at the knowledge that they knew. Martha, and apparently her nonplussed husband, already knew their true origins. Well. At least Rose’s true origins.

“Ok, take two,” Martha quipped. “How did you two meet?”

“There may have been an explosion involved. And the word ‘run.’” the Doctor answered, hesitating. There were points at stake after all.

“Now that’s a story I want to hear later!” Reggie declared.

“Rose?” Martha prompted, ignoring him.

Rose revealed her digital paper screen and read it aloud: “He saved my life before he blew up the building where I worked.”

“Very considerate of him!” Reggie bellowed. “That’s a keeper, right there. Did you at least make him buy you a drink?”

Rose grinned. She was going to like this Reggie fellow.

“Well, I tried to make him buy me chips, but he didn’t have any money.” She poked the Doctor in the side.

“Ow!” the Doctor protested. “And you conveniently left out the part where I took you to the ends of the Earth.”

“Literally!” Rose explained to the other couple. “First date, takes me to see my home planet’s destruction.”

They all burst out laughing at the look on the Doctor’s face.

“Oh come off it,” he teased back. “You know underneath the initial shock of it all, which I realize _now_ was probably rather significant, you were addicted from the start.”

“Ah, but that’s the question,” Reggie interjected with a suggestive gleam in his eye. “Did she get addicted to the travel or to the man serving as her tour guide?”

“A little of both perhaps,” Rose answered honestly. The laughter around the table loosened the awkward tension of the forced conversation.

“Order! Order in the court!” Martha thumped the table with her hand and called them back to the game. “Doctor, your turn to ask us a question.”

“Hmm.” The Doctor pulled out the brainy specs. “Ah! Reggie, when did Martha first fall in love with you?”

“Ooo. That’s a good one.” He sat back to think about it.

“Hold on now, give me a chance to write my answer.” Martha lightly swatted her husband’s arm as she hunched over her digital paper. “Ok, I’m ready.”

“I think it was the Alps?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed and gave him a peck on the cheek. “We were on the same train to the same ski resort and I recognized him as the bloke I had a crush on from university but thought it couldn’t possibly be him.”

“But it was,” Reggie finished with the contented smile of a man grateful to providence. “We spent the rest of our trip ditching our plans and sneaking away from our friends to see each other, and the rest is history.”

“That’s amazing!” Rose’s words were sincere, but fell into silence as they all caught the irony of her – the one engaged to a half-alien – thinking an ordinary train-meeting “amazing.” Everyone took a sip of their champagne.

Still, Martha beamed at her boss’s daughter’s approval. She briefly considered what friendship with a time-and-space-traveling heiress must be like. She had always imagined Pete Tyler’s daughter to be a spoiled princess, but Rose was quickly proving the wild office gossip about her moxie to be true. Surely she hadn’t really done all their co-workers said, right?

“Next question!” Reggie bounded on with the enthusiasm of a kid on Christmas. “Rose, what’s one thing the Doctor would change about his physical appearance if he could?”

“OOO!” She bounced in her seat. “Ginger! He’s never been ginger.”

Reggie tried to conceal his confusion on the “never been” part of her sentence. Not many men dyed their hair here, but maybe that was a common fashion in their old universe?

“Hey now,” the Doctor grumbled. “I didn’t have it written down yet.”

“Sorry, just got excited,” Rose giggled, sipping more champagne.

“She’s right,” the Doctor informed the other couple. “I do love my current hair, but I have always wanted to be a natural, genuine ginger, even if just for a bit, and it’s never quite worked out.”

“I’ll explain later,” Martha whispered in her husband’s ear.

“Back to you, Martha.” Rose held up a card. “What historical figure would Reggie most like to meet?”

“Ooo, maybe Bartimus Shakespeare?”

“Bartimus!” the Doctor and Rose exclaimed in unison.

“Yeah, you know? The Bard?” Martha wondered once more just how different their old version of Earth had been.

“We called him William back… well... you know,” the Doctor explained.

“William? So common,” Martha pondered.

“Far too common for such an extraordinary man.” Reggie seemed a bit defensive of his literary hero.

“Big fan, then?” Rose tried to steer the subject away from differences with their old universe.

“Indeed! Used that man’s words to woo my bride here.” Reggie squeezed a blushing Martha.

“Oh, honestly. It was more surprise that a big ol’ rugby player would know what a sonnet was, much less be able to recite one from memory.”

“Unlike you to have such deep prejudice, love,” he bantered right back.

She playfully crossed her arms in mock anger.

The Doctor shook his head in bewilderment. She was so different. Yet so much the same.

Before they could start Round 2, Jackie was at the microphone calling all the couples to the dance floor and participation was not optional. She made no attempt to conceal from her daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law that she was keeping an eye on them and sneaking away was out of the question.


	2. The Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tentoo and Rose dance to "You Are in Love" by Taylor Swift at the Valentine's Day Gala.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter inspired by the great TSwift. The song is “You Are in Love,” a bonus track on 1989. The Tumblr post that inspired this chapter: http://thatssoravenclawandotherfandoms.tumblr.com/post/101907529994/you-are-in-love-tenxrose

Rose’s heart raced as she realized the party’s DJ was playing the new song she had requested. She first heard it on the car radio the week before the party and had to pull over to the side of the road as memories washed over her. She planned to save it for their wedding, but the more she listened to it, she knew she couldn’t wait that long. She stood and held out her hand to her fiance.

“Doctor, may I have this dance?”

“With you? Always,” he responded with a grin. It faded when they reached the dance floor and started to move with the rhythm. It was a faster beat than Rose remembered and she had to focus not to lose her balance.

“Listen,” she whispered into his ear. “Listen to the words.”

They didn’t speak for the rest of the song, just exchanging silent expressions as they listened to their relationship set to music.

As the flood of memories ended with the song, he leaned in close.

“Rose Tyler.” He brushed a stray hair behind her ear. “You’re my best friend.”

“I know. I love you too.” She caught the reference to the lyrics and pulled him in for a desperate kiss.

 

_One look, dark room_  
 _Meant just for you_  
 _Time moved too fast_  
 _You play it back_  
 _Buttons on a coat_  
 _Lighthearted joke_

__

 

  
 _No proof, not much_  
 _But you saw enough_  
 _Small talk, he drives_  
 _Coffee at midnight_  
 _The light reflects_  
 _The chain on your neck_  
 _He says look up_  
 _And your shoulders brush_  
 _No proof, one touch_  
 _You felt enough_

  
  
_You can hear it in the silence, silence_  
 _You can feel it on the way home, way home_  
 _You can see it with the lights out, lights out_  
 _You are in love, true love_  
 _You are in love_

__

  
_Morning, his place_  
 _Burn toast, Sunday_  
 _You keep his shirt_  
 _He keeps his word_  
 _And for once you let go_  
 _Of your fears and your ghosts_  
 _One step, not much_  
 _But it said enough_  
 _You kiss on sidewalks_  
 _You fight and you talk_  
 _One night he wakes_  
 _Strange look on his face_  
 _Pauses, then says_  
 _**You’re my best friend**_  
 _**And you knew what it was**_  
 _**He is in love**_

  
  
_You can hear it in the silence, silence_  
 _You can feel it on the way home, way home_  
 _You can see it with the lights out, lights out_  
 _You are in love, true love_

  
_And so it goes_  
 _You two are dancing in a snow globe round and round_  
 _And he keeps the picture of you in his office downtown_

__

  
_And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars_  
 _And why I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words_

  
  
_‘Cause you can hear it in the silence_  
 _You can feel it on the way home_  
 _You can see it with the lights out_  
 _You are in love, true love_  
 _You’re in love_

 

__~~~~  



	3. The Way Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They head home from the gala.

With the combination of Valentine’s Day, the champagne, the silly couples’ game, the dizziness from the dancing, and the memories of loss and reunion and grief and joy… they couldn’t help but lose themselves in the moment. That is, until their kissing received applause and a few whoops from their audience. They broke away and realized the music was long over, but they still stood in the middle of the dance floor holding each other. The Doctor backed away a bit as he saw Jackie and Pete approaching.

“Lovely party, Jackie, as always!” The Doctor tried to ward off any impending lectures.

“Go home, you two,” she urged. The Doctor flinched, but her soft smile told she was sincere.

“But won’t you need help…” Rose argued.

“It’s alright, love. I’ve got plenty of help cleaning up. I’ve taken up enough of your Valentine’s Day.”

“Thanks, Mum.” Rose hugged her parents and they headed back to their seats to grab their coats. Martha and Reggie were headed home as well and Rose found herself grateful they hadn’t missed saying goodbye.

“We should get together sometime, you know, outside of Torchwood duties,” Rose blurted out as they reached their cars.

Martha and Reggie exchanged smiles, as if they had just been talking about the same thing.

“We’d like that a lot,” Martha said.

The Doctor and Reggie shook hands as Martha and Rose hugged briefly in the way two women do in that awkward stage between acquaintances and dear friends.

Once they were safely inside the car with no chance of being overheard, Rose’s mind cleared a bit. She had just invited Martha into their lives.

“Doctor?”

“Mmhm?”

“Are you ok with… tonight?”

“More than ok, love. Especially that last dance. Definitely more than ok. And the night’s not over.” He winked suggestively.

“Good thing, too,” she replied with a hint of a challenge in her tone. “But that’s not what I meant. I mean, is it ok for you seeing Martha? And not just seeing her, but being friends with her?”

The Doctor considered her question and was able to answer honestly. “Yeah, it is.”

He turned down the street that led to their neighborhood, marveling for a minute that they had a neighborhood and a building with their flat inside. A flat with carpets and doors and walls.

“It will always be weird,” he continued, though it had been so long Rose had nearly forgotten her question. “And I suppose if they already know the truth about us anyway, we could bring it up casually. See how she responds, and then if – and only if, Rose – if she wants to hear about the other Martha, it wouldn’t cause any universe-shattering paradoxes to tell her a few stories.”

“Probably best to avoid mentioning her crush on you.” Rose smiled at how weird that conversation would be. _I know you’re happily married here, but your parallel self was in love with my fiancé and left our time machine with my ex-boyfriend._ Forget alien planets and dimension hopping, Rose’s relationships alone were messed up enough to scare most people away.

“Yeah, come to think of it, maybe we should wait a bit to give this doubles thing a chance.”

“Doubles? Ooo, Doctor, we could go on double dates! I hadn’t even thought of that benefit to having another couple around…”

“Well, I was making a tennis reference, but I’m not opposed to double dates. Only sometimes though. I like having you all to myself on our date nights.” He stole a brief glance at her and waggled his eyebrows.

“Quite right,” she agreed. “And we already know one positive thing that will come from those double dates.”

“What’s that?”

“You finally have a second member for your Shakespeare fan club.”

“He was a genius, Rose! I don’t care what universe we’re in.”

“I know. But doesn’t mean I always get overly excited when you’re quoting him or will remember what play it’s from.”

“What if they aren’t the same here?!” The Doctor’s eyes widened in realization. “What if this Shakespeare wrote his plays out of order… or not at all!” A grave apprehension settled in his stomach. “What if Barty Shakespeare didn’t write everything ol’ William did? What if he really isn’t very good?”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart!” Rose tried not to laugh as she reassured him. “Reggie likes him. And so does Martha, from what I gathered. If Martha likes this Shakespeare, that’s a pretty solid recommendation, wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah,” the Doctor exhaled as they pulled into their parking space. “You’re right. She may be different here, but I can already tell, still the same old Martha inside.”

“Good.” Rose kissed his cheek before opening the car door.

“I tell you what though,” she added, shaking her head, “Bartimus.”

“Bartimus.” The Doctor nodded, trying to wrap his mind around the name as they reached the door. He opened it for her and they rode the waiting elevator to the top floor, wordlessly knowing they weren’t headed inside their flat just quite yet. First, they had a date with their secret rooftop star-gazing spot, just as the Doctor had suggested earlier that evening before donning his tux for the gala. Turns out a man can woo his girl and impress her parents too.


End file.
